Door-controlling means



- Feb. 20, 1940. c UN DOOR-CONTROLLING MEANS Filed Dec. 16, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet l /@0 ANDREW (I Du/v/v WZCW=I M INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Feb. 20, 1940. A. c. DUNN DOOR-CONTROLLING MEANS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 16, 1935 .N 5 [E @N H mm w my @hwm W n 3 om .v A Q\ 7 D t N m I A m Feb. 20, 1940. A. c. DUNN 2,190,653

DOOR-CONTROLLING MEANS Filed Dec. 16, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. ANDREW C DUN/v ATTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 20, 1940 UNITED STATES nooa-coNmoLmNG MEANS Andrew C. Chicago, 111., assignor to O. N. Davies, trustee, Minneapolis, Minn.

Application December 18, 1935, Serial No. 54,657

4 Claims.

This invention relates to controlling doors, and is of special utility in controlling the opening and shutting of relatively heavy doors subject to considerable variations in the wind pressure against them, as for example the doors of apartments and hotels especially those on the upper floors, and the street doors of shops and the like.

The fluid door checks usually used with such doors require different settings for different wind pressures, and consequently when that pressure varies from the pressure for which the door check is adjusted, the door check will either let the door slam or it will unduly retard or entirely stop the closing.

According to my invention, the door is controlled during the final part of its closing movement and the first part of its opening movement by novel devices which do not act on the door during the remainder of its movement, and which can consequently be adjusted to control the door accurately under the heaviest pressures without making an undue burden of opening and closing the door.

I prefer to utilize also, as a cooperating control device, the usual fluid door check or one of the improvements thereon described below. However, since the door check no longer has-the entire burden of closing the door and holding it closed and of preventing slamming, it may be adjusted for easy operation in opening the door and to close the door sufficiently for my novel control devices to take charge of it, as the door is relatively easy to control when it is partly open.

My novel control devices include a check device of the type having a cylinder and piston arranged to have a dashpot effect in retarding the final closing of the door and preventing slamming, and the cylinder of which preferably has an integral extension formed with a cam surface controlling the action of a spring door closer. The door closer illustrated is of novel con- 'struction, including pivotally-connected parts arranged to form a housing or casing for the door-closing spring.

An important feature of the invention relates to supplying a power medium, such as compressed air, for operating one or more of the control devices to open the door by power. Preferably the compressed air, or equivalent medium, acts on my novel check device to give a quick opening push, and also acts on the door check to follow this up with a sustained opening thrust acting more slowly. Various features of the invention relate to the construction and arrangement of the check device and of the door check, to secure this action.

This phase of the invention also has to do with the control of the power, as f r examp y mounting in the door a control device such asa compressed-air valve which is actuated by pulling or thrusting at the door to open it, and which is closed again automatically by the consequent opening of the door. Thus the natural motions of opening and closing the door serve to perform those operations, but by controlled power.

If desired, for shop doors and the like, the control may be from novel circuit closing devices arranged in the floor on opposite sides of the door, where they are walked over in approaching the door. In this case, the circuit includes means holding the door open for a sufficient interval for a person to walk through it.

The above and other objects and features of the invention, including various novel combinations of parts and desirable particular constructions, will be apparent from the following description of the illustrative embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a door and its casing, with my novel controls;

Figure 2 is a section longitudinally through the door check shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a partial section on a larger scale than Figure 2, showing the check valve arrangement;

Figures 4 and 5 are sections corresponding to Figure 2, but showing modifications of the door check;

Figure 6 is a partial top plan view of the door and the check device and door closer, with the cylinder of the check device partly in section;

Figure 7 is a section through my novel spring door closer, on the line 'l--l of Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a partial section through the door closer on the line 8-8 of Figure 7;

Figure 9 is a perspective view of a cam device for use in the door closer;

Figures 10, 11, and 12 are diagrams showing the compressed air hookup when the door checks of Figures 2, 4, and 5 respectively are used;

Figure 13 is a partial section through the door handle, showing the control valve;

Figure 14 is a diagrammatic section showing an electrically-controlled valve operated by walking over a novel contact-making device laid on the floor;

Figure 15 is a partial section through the contact-making device of Figure 14; and

Figure 16 is a detail section through an adjustable-bleed check valve used with my control devices.

My,novel control devices are shown as used to control the opening and closing of a door I8 pivotally mounted in a door casing I2 by means such as hinges I4 secured to its edge.

Connected between the door and the casing is a door check including a casting I8, shown bolted or otherwise secured to the door, and which contains a torsion spring I8 secured to the casting at one end and secured at its other end to a rotatable shaft 28 on which, outside the casting I8, is flxedly secured an arm 22 pivoted at its end to one end of a link 2'4. The other end of the link 24 is pivoted to a bracket 28 mounted on the casing I2. The parts may of course be reyersed, the casting I8 being mounted on the casing and the bracket 28 on the door. When the door is closed, the arm 22 and the link 24 are arranged beside each other.

The casting I8 is formed with a cylinder 28 for pistons 88 and 88 having a piston rod 32 formed with a rack operatively meshing with and driving a pinion secured on the shaft 28. The cylinder 28 contains a suitable liquid such as oil. which as the door closes is forced by the piston 88 through a passage 34 into the opposite end of the cylinder behind the piston 38, past an adjustable needle valve 48 (Figure 3).

When the door is closing, the oil pressure holds a ball check valve 42 on its seat, so that all the oil must pass the needle valve 48, while when the door is opening the oil can readily pass the check valve 42 and the device offers-only the resistance of spring I8 to the opening of the door.

A second piston rod 44 extends from auxiliary piston 88 through a packing in the end of the cylinder28, and is operatively connected to a power piston 48 arranged in a power cylinder 48 (of larger diameter than cylinder 28) secured on the casting I8 coaxially with respect to cylinder 28. The cylinder 48 is provided with an inlet port communicating with a compressed air conduit 58.

The door check described above is operated in opening the door, by the power of compressed air acting as hereinafter described on the piston 48, to shift the'piston rod or rack 32 to the left in Figure 2, to cause the arm 22 to thrust through the link 24 in a direction to open the door, and at the same time to wind up the spring I 8. When the air pressure is released, the spring I8 acts to close the door against the dashpot action of the piston 88 forcing the oil past the needle valve 48.

As previously explained, in order to obviate the necessity of making the doorcheck act powerfully enough when the arm 22 reaches an ineffective angle, just as the door closes, and to insure against slamming without unduly slowing up the major part of the closing movement, I provide a novel cooperating check device including a cylinder 52 adapted to be secured to the door, and provided with a piston 84 having a thrust rod 88 with a rounded end adapted to engage a leather or cork bumper carried by a fitting 58 secured to the casing I2. The cylinder 52 may of course be secured to the casing instead of to the door, in which case the bumper 58 would be mounted on the door.

The preferred construction is shown in detail in Figure 6. The piston 58 is shown as a metal stamping backed by a leather seal or cup 88 held against the cylinder wall by a compressible felt ring 82. A second stamping 84 is flared to engage the cylinder wall further back, to give a more extended bearing on the cylinder.

The illustrated cylinder includes a cylindrical steel liner 88, on which one end'of the cylinder is cast as a cap permanently secured thereto, and on which the other end is detachably threaded as a removable cap providing a bearing for the thrust rod 58.

When the door is opened, a spring 88 urges the piston 54 to the end of the cylinder, drawing air past a ball check valve 18 (Figure 16) in a valve casing I2. When the door closes, the piston 84 gradually forces the air out, with a dashpot action, past an adjustable needle valve I4 in the casing 12, the ball valve 18 being at that time held on its seat by the air pressure.

If desired, one of the valves I2 may also be interposed between cylinder 48 and conduit 88, to make the piston 48 and cylinder 48 also act as a dashpot as the door closes.

According to one feature of the present invention, compressed air or an equivalent power medium is caused to act on the piston 54, by being introduced into the cylinder 52 through a conduit 16, to give the door an opening push, after which the opening is completed by the more gradual action of piston 48 acting alone. This operation has the'further advantage that there is a great deal more air in the cylinder 52 which has to be forced gradually out in closing the door, making the dashpot action that much more effective.

The detachable cap of the cylinder 82 is shown as formed with an integral extension I8. This extension, and a cap 88 detachably secured thereto, form a housing, open at the top, within which is adjustably secured a plate 82 formed with parallel curved flanges 84 and 88 forming a cam track for a cam roller 88 or the like.

The plate 82 also has a slotted projection 88, in the slot of which is seated the central portion of a U-shaped leaf spring 82, the two arms of which rest against the inner walls of the flanges 84 and 88 respectively. The two arms of the spring 92 spring away from these flanges sufflciently so that the arm on the left in Figure 6 serves to cushion the impact of the roller 88 as it enters the cam track between flanges 84 and 88 as the door is closing. The spring also serves to take up play between the roller and the cam track.

The cam device 82 can be adjusted, according to the position of the roller 88, being held by screws 84 passing through slots 88.

The roller 88 has a spindle 88 by which it is mounted on one part I08 of a substantially closed two-part casing. The casing part I88 is the movable element of the door closer, and is connected by alined pivots I82 to the stationary casing part I84 secured to the door casing I2.

A strong coil spring I88 is housed within this casing or housing I88I84 being tensioned between a pin I88 carried by the stationary part I84 and a nut II8 adjustably threaded on a bolt II2 having a semispherical head seated in a socket formed in the end of the casing part I88. The righthand end of the spring I88 is also shown secured to the pin I88 by being attached to a nut II4 threaded on a bolt II8 having its head formed as an eye sleeved on the pin I88.

When the door opens, the cam 84-88 acts on the roller 88 to rock the casing part I88 about the axis of pivots I82, to tension the spring I86, and also to shift it slightly past a dead-center position, where it holds the casing part I88 against a stop formed by a flange I I8 on the stationarycasing part I04 (Figure 8). The closing of the door causes cam flanges 8486 to reengage the roller 88, and as soon as spring I08 is shifted past dead center it acts as a powerful force to insure the firm closing of the door, and

to hold it closed tightly without rattling.

As shown in the diagram of Figure 10, the conduits 60 and 16 may be connected through a suitable control valve I20, and through a suitable swivel joint I22 permitting the swinging of the door, and through a pressure regulator I24 if desired, to a reservoir I26 kept charged with compressed air by means such as a'motor-driven automatic compressor I28.

In Figure 13, in lieu of the simple three-way valve I20 of Figure 10, I substitute a plunger valve I30 urged by a spring I32 to the illustrated position in which the conduits and 16 are connected to an exhaust port I34. I30 may be shifted, to connect the conduits l0 and 16 with a conduit I36 communicating with the reservoir I26, either by pressure on a thrust member I38 pivotally mounted on one side of the door, or by tension on a handle I40 pivotally mounted on the other side of the door.

It will be noted that this gives the door a "follow-up action. As soon as one presses on the plate I38 or pulls on the handle I40, the door opens, and this acts to close the valve I30 again unless one continued to push or pull (as the case may be) still further.

In Figures 14 and 15 I illustrate an arrangement in which one opens the door by walking over a novel contact making device comprising plates I40 and I42 separated by sponge rubber I44 and provided with contacts I46 which are closed by compressing the sponge rubber. This closes a circuit between wires I48 and I50 (or I52 and I54 in parallel therewith), causing current to flow from a transformer or other source I56 through a coil I58. The coil I58 has a sta tionary lower core I60, which draws downwardly a movable core I62 which operates the valve plunger I80.

The movable core I62 has a thrust part I which acts to close a contact between a spring finger I66 and a thermostatic strip I68 connected, through a heating resistance I10 adjacent the thermostatic or bimetallic strip I68, to the wires I48 and I50.

As long as the contacts I46 remain closed, the door stands open and substantially no current passes through the resistance I10. As soon as the person who closed the circuit proceeds through the door, the contacts I46 separate, and the current through the coil I58 passes through the resistance I10. After a suitable interval, the heat from the resistance I10 causes the strip I68 to warp away from the strip I66, breaking the circuit and causing the door to close.

In the arrangement illustrated in Figures 4 and 11, the compressed air acts on a power piston I80 in the door check I82, actuating a piston rod rack I84 corresponding to the rack 32, and compressing air trapped in a cylinder I86 ahead of a piston I84, thus eliminating the oil used with the device of Figure 2. When the door is closed, air can enter cylinder I86 through a port I90.

In the arrangement of Figures 5 and 12, the

I doorcheck I82 contains a large piston I84 and a small piston I86 connected by a piston rod rack I88 geared to a shaft 200 which corresponds to the shaft 20 in Figure 2. The piston I84 is acted on by air from the conduit 50 controlled by valve I20, as before, but the piston I96 is ar- The plunger force of the compressed air in the reservoir I26 and the conduit 204. When valve I20 (or I30) is operated to open the door, there is eventually built up the same pressure per square inch on the piston I84 as on the piston I86, butsince the piston I84 is the larger it shifts the piston I86 to the left in Figure 5, opening the door. When line 50 is exhausted to the atmosphere, the elastic pressure on the piston I86 closes the door.

While various illustrative structures and arrangemients have been described in detafl, it is not my intention to limit the scope of my invention by, that description, or otherwise than by the terms of the appended claims.

I claim: r

1. Door-controlling means comprising, in combination with a door, and its casing, a door check connected between the door and casing and hav-, ing an arm and a link forming said connection,

,and which door check includes a power means for rocking said arm to open the door, a check device operable between the door and easing during the last part of the closing movement and the first part of the-opening movement of the door and which yieldingly retards the final closing movement of the door andwhich is operable by power to give an opening push to the door, a door closing device engageable between the door and its casing and operable to force the door closed while said check device is retarding the 1 closing of the door and which includes a spring which is tensioned by the opening of the door, and common control means for the power operation of the door check and said check device to cause synchronized operation thereof to open the door.

2. Door-controlling means comprising, in combination with a door casing and a door pivoted at one edge therein, a door check connected between the door and the casing and including an arm and a link connectedto the arm, said arm and link being arranged beside each other when the door is closed, said door check having fluid power means for rocking said .arm in a direction to thrust on said link to open the door, a check device engaging between the door and casing during the final part of the closing movement and the first part of the opening movement of the door without interfering with the remainder of the movement of the door, said check device comprising a cylinder and piston having a dashpot action yieldingly retarding said final closing movement as said arm and link reach a. relatively ineffective angle and having connections supplying power fluid to said cylinder to give an opening push to the door during said first part of the opening movement while said arm and link are still at a relatively ineffective angle with respect to each other, a door closing device including parts on the door and the casing which engage each other during the final closing movement and the first opening movement of the door and one of which parts includes a substantially closed casing in two pivotally connected sections and a spring housed in said casing and arranged to be tensioned by the first part of the opening movement of the door I and to close the door against the yielding retardation of the door check and the check device during the final part of the closing movement of the door, and common control means for supplying power fluid to the door check and the check device.

3. A door swingable about a vertical axis and provided with a fluid-power opening device having acontrol valve including a spring-closed valve plunger arranged to extend through the door, a handle on one side 0! the door movable toward and away from the plane thereof and connected to open said valve by pulling on one end of the plunger when tension is applied to the handle in the direction 0! opening of the door, and a thrust member on the other side of the door operable when pushed against in the direction 01' opening of the door to open the valve by pressure on the other end of the plunger.

4. Door-controlling means comprising, in combination with a door swingable about a vertical axis, a fluid power device for opening the door, a control valve for the power device carried by the door, and an operating member for the valve connected to the door and movable toward and away from the plane 01 the door and arranged to be shifted relative to the door in the direction or opening movement of the door to move the control valve to cause the door to open and to be shifted in the opposite direction by the consequent movement of the door relative to the operating member to move the valve toward a zapped position to retard further opening of the cor.

ANDREW C. DUNN. 15 

